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Happy 2019! Hope your business flourished in 2018 and that you have a solid plan for the coming year.

If your plans include a new or updated website, check out the process DKemp Designs went through in updating.

The previous version of dkempdesigns.com was colorful, upbeat and reflected the branding of the company. But the framework was old school and did not include the latest iterations of Bootstrap and JavaScript which drive mobility and animations.

The challenge was to incorporate a cleaner design and added functions into the same style and flavor of the previous site. In addition, some SEO friendly changes were made on the back-end. A wire frame and mock-up were both used in the process to ease the transition from one design to the next.

Decisions were made about what elements to keep from the previous design and what to transition. Some elements were updated before the transition.

To address usability, contrast between text and graphics was increased as well as the default font sizes. More graphics in several styles was used to convey the information and branding. Text blocks were broken up for better readability and the user interface was simplified.

To increase the mobile access, most of the graphics on the new design are now SVG graphics. SVG graphics scale without pixellating on large and small devices.

Here is a pic of the before and after. The new sight is on the right. Do you think we captured the essence of the old site? Let us know in the comments.

Ready to start your update?

If your business is considering a web overhaul, think it through before making any decisions. This is a major change that will affect your rankings and customer experience. Here is a list to get you started;

First what is your budget for updating your website?

Second, determine your goals for the site update. Are you offering new services, adding products or need new functionality? Is your current site mobile optimized? Do you need lead generation?

Choose a web designer who can map out a plan for your goals before the actual building of the site happens. And if you want to chat about a site change project, contact DKemp Designs for a no cost consultation. Happy updating!

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Effective web design is not just a placeholder on the internet. Rather, a website is a crucial employee of your business. This employee is often the first or second image a customer has of your enterprise. A web designer should be able to help you translate your image and goals into a design that works for you and your customer base.

One of the latest DKemp Designs‘ projects brought e-commerce to a brand of natural products for hair, skin and health. It was important to the business owner to immediately have a natural/health image on her site. Divinely Natural uses the most current design elements of breathing space, large clear images and responsive design while emphasizing the natural aesthetic with color and logo elements.

In addition, this entrepreneur had almost 400 products to load which required creation of a database to reduce time and ensure consistency.

Please visit Divinely Natural and let us know in the comments what you think of this elegant solution.

Samsung Comeback with the Galaxy Note 8

The smartphone wars are on and the winners are consumers. At this time technology has assured that there is a phone for every use and budget. Techsnoop is a mega-multitasker and power user so there are only premium phones to consider in this market. The winner for Techsnoop is the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. Unfortunately, there is a problem with the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 phone. A phone this premium and expensive needs a protective case. But the phone is too beautiful to cover up. What to do, what to do?

Seriously, in all the photos I have seen of the Orchid Gray model, it doesn’t compare to what this phone looks like close up. It is sleek, glossy, and beautiful from every angle. While Techsnoop prefers flat screens, the curved edges seem to be popular for people with small hands. The slimmer profile is also popular, but Techsnoop likes it a tiny bit wider. But these minor issues don’t detract from the excellent features of the Note 8.

Calls are clear and crisp, multi-tasking with the combo-app feature is fun and time-saving, responsiveness is super quick with the 6GB of RAM and the screen is beautiful. Videos play seamlessly and photos are crisp.

Seriously, some laptops don’t come with 6GB of RAM. This makes using multiple apps a seamless experience. And if you are into watching videos on the phone, the RAM boost gives a smooth and crisp display. There was some question abut the battery power but it seems to get a full day of multi use. (Update 4/11/18: the latest software update has shaved battery life. Hopefully, Samsung will address this quickly.)

Due to the amount of apps and use, Techsnoop has a 128GB Micro SD card installed. However, if you are a heavy video watcher, spring for the 256GB card. Trust Techsnoop.

Favorite feature: screen off notes. This allows you to take notes on the screen without having to wake the phone up. Great for meetings or middle of the night brainstorms.

After more than six months of extremely heavy use, Techsnoop can state that the Note 8 lives up to expectations as a powerhouse business tool. Have questions? Leave them in the comments and Techsnoop will answer.

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Step Up Your Small Business Game

So, you have a small business and need to increase your marketing presence. What actions offer the most “bang for the buck” or great ROI? If your marketing budget is small, start with the basics to increase your reach on Google Local Search.

First, if you do not have a custom domain name, buy one now. Your domain name and business name must be unified so that customers can find you quickly. More than 70% of customers do local searches on their smartphone when looking for services. You must be listed. And if you have not formally registered your name, do it now. You don’t want to have to change your branding later if someone else takes your name.

Next, if you cannot afford professional web design just yet, make sure you create an attractive LinkedIn company page using your business and domain name. Park a simple template landing page on your domain name with contact phone number and email so customers can connect with you. Although not optimal, a template landing page is better than not being found.

Professional Email

A branded, professional email is important to distinguish you between hobbyists and serious business professionals. In fact, without a professional email address, LinkedIn will not allow you to create a company page. There are also many services on the internet that won’t accept your registration with a generic email address.

Yet another reason for a professional email address; Yahoo mail has had over 54 outage issues since January 1, 2017. This means if you are using a Yahoo address for business, you are missing messages. Since timely response to customers is a major reason for customers to switch, you cannot afford this. Techsnoop loves Yahoo and has used them for years, but not for business.

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Use 2017 as the year you narrow the gap between your business and the big box stores. Create a seamless online experience for your customers.

Even if it doesn’t result in a same-day sale, social media can be an important part of a customer’s decision to purchase.

In a recent Manta poll, 45% of small business owners said they invest marketing dollars in social media. Social media marketing can help you build awareness and engagement with customers by posting interesting content on popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others. But can social media marketing really help you increase sales?

The short answer is yes, social media marketing can help small business owners and contractors increase sales, but it often takes time to see positive effects.

“Social marketing efforts that are done consistently over time will absolutely generate business, but it’s not an overnight thing,” said author and small business expert Melinda Emerson. “It takes at least seven and as many as 21 quality interactions to turn an online connection into a paying customer. Social media credibility must be built over time.”

Business owners often get frustrated trying to calculate the elusive ROI of social media. Tools like Google Analytics can help you better understand how social media is (or isn’t) leading to sales, as well as which platforms and posts are most effective.

“Make sure you understand what role your social efforts play in your customer’s path to purchase,” said Brian Jensen, CEO of Congruent Digital. “We’ve found that for many industries, social plays more of an assist role, or acting as a touch point during either the awareness or consideration phase.”

The bottom line is that customers are watching what your business says and does through social media. Not only can these interactions drive sales, they can inspire loyalty. At the same time, neglecting the social media channels you build can limit growth and even create a negative reputation for potential customers.

So choose just a couple of platforms to focus on and engage with your audience in a transparent manner. This is the best way to build loyal customers who will recommend you. For a friendly, free consultation, contact DKemp Designs and get up to 30 minutes of advice and no high pressure sales tactics.

Mock ups can really showcase graphic design so that the public can get a ‘real world’ view of the end product. Do you use mock ups to enhance your presentations? If so, buying them for different purposes can really add up. Here’s a chance to get hundreds of mock ups now and in the future for one reasonable price.

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Girl Scouts will now offer badges in cybersecurity according to Gizmodo. This is GREAT news for Techsnoop who has a 5-year-old female relative in Daisy with a strong interest in science. The Girls Scouts had the radical idea of asking girls what they wanted to learn. Surprisingly, girls want to learn cybersecurity and they want to join hackathons. Take note school districts across America; girls want to hack. They are interested in science, computers and robotics. And if they are struggling in math, it is the fault of the schools, not the girls.

“We surveyed a lot of girls,” Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo told Gizmodo. “In those evaluations, girls repeatedly said they wanted more computer science and they were really interested in cybersecurity in terms of protecting themselves online. Bullying is a big issue. Also figuring out hackathons, they wanted to do that as well. (via Gizmodo)”

So, step up teachers across the country. Wearing pink and purple and glitter does not mean a lack of interest in science, technology, engineering and mathmatics. Rather, it means girls want to look good while putting the cyber smack down on cyber criminals. The differening perspectives of women in tech can unlock critical issues in self-driving cars, AI and ecommerce. Time to leverage this huge resource in the STEM industries.

Watch out Silicon Valley, this new army of cheeta prints and glam wardrobes are coming to a computer near you.

SEO and SEM are Tools to Take Control of Your Business.

Small business owners have a choice; hire someone to completely control your digital destiny. Or, learn the basics of SEO and SEM to enhance your website and local business search results.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization. When you or your web designer edits the metadata and content of your site, the search engine crawlers move your site link up closer to the top of the results. In local search, the customer’s location data is used to further filter these results. Search engine algorithms are constantly updated to push link-bait and spam sites further down and genuine sites further to the top of the results. Review the recommendations of Bing, Yahoo! and Google to lift your search rankings.

SEM: Search Engine Marketing. SEM is paid ads on sites like Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Bing. These ads show up at the top of search results and on the right sidebar of search results. This can be an effective short-term solution to help enhance your SEO efforts.

Organic search results are the results that naturally occur when a customer searches for your type of business. An example is ‘web design’ which used to be a keyword that businesses would overuse in their metadata and on their pages. The newest algorithms are able to determine web design from the page content without overuse of the word. In fact, today’s search engines will actually penalize your site for ‘keyword stuffing’ as this is now considered spam.

Providing good, relevant content that is updated often is the best way to reach the coveted first page of search results. These are the results most likely to be clicked by customers.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is far and away the best phone Techsnoop has ever owned. But it is now getting a bit dated and tired. Unfortunately, Samsung released the Note 5 with out the expandable storage and the Note 7 was a fire hazard.

But the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are both huge hits and the ‘infinity’ display is a compromise between the edge display and usable screen real estate. So now we wait for these same specs to be bumped up for the flagship phone, the Note 8. Rumours of 6GB of RAM are enough to make a tech geek drool.

Smartphones are a central part of our lives now with the ability to locate and start your car, lock and unlock your home door and control smart home devices. In addition, apps like Samsung Health help you keep track of fitness and dietary goals to improve your health, eliminating the need for additional devices. And importantly for Techsnoop, there are great productivity apps for web design and business.

In his final post, Walt Mossberg states that technology will soon become ‘ambient’ or just a part of the everyday objects we use. The combination of artificial intelligence / machine learning, augmented reality, virtual reality, robotics and drones, smart homes, self-driving cars, and digital health / wearables (Walt Mossberg, the Verge) will make the computer an invisible butler in accomplishing our tasks.

So it only makes sense that smartphones will continue to be an important link between other computing devices and our interface. Making a power house phone like the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 a true value.

Are you waiting on the Note 8 or did you take the S8 plunge? Let us know in the comments.

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Starting or updating a small business website? Interview your web designers like you would for employees. Here’s some tips.

Small business owners are busy wearing multiple hats running a business. So when it comes to technical solutions, most small business owners choose to outsource their website creation. To select a great designer or agency, you need to know some designer-speak. If terms like SEO, SEM, newsletters and list building are foreign to you, keep reading.

The purpose of your website is to increase your business income. Even if you don’t have an e-commerce site, bringing customers to your store or enticing them to call is the primary focus of a website. But if your site is not found by potential customers, no conversions can happen.

SEO = Search Engine Optimization; the process of having your site appear in search results high enough to cause clicks by customers.

To prepare for the web designer interview process, make a list of goals for your website. Decide on a color scheme and branding that you think reflects your business. Next, write a description of your ideal target customer. Having a picture of who you want to target helps direct the design process.

Does the designer communicate well?

Every tech person communicates differently. But when developing your website, the designer must be able to understand your goals and communicate how they will accomplish this. Is the designer clear, using normal English or do they use technobabble to make themselves sound smarter? This is a sign that working with the designer will be difficult.

Is there a portfolio you can review?

Does the designer have a range of work styles? Or do all their projects look exactly alike? It is ok for a designer to specialize in one area of design, but if your web site does not fall into their speciality, it won’t be a good match. Also see if the designer can do other things such as business cards to match your site. A web designer with multiple talents helps you to keep your branding consistent.

How will the web site be managed?

What platform will the designer use? Will you use an administration board to update the site or will the designer make updates for you? Will the designer train you to use the back-end? Most designers can offer a flat monthly fee for updating your site. But there are many options for making small updates to content, photos and prices yourself. Consider if you have the time to do this task.

Will the Designer create a wire frame or mock-up of the site?

There are many wire frame or prototyping tools available so that you can get a good view of how the site will look and behave. Does the price include creating a wire frame or mock-up? If not, this is an important add-on feature that you should consider. You don’t want to be surprised with a difficult to navigate site that is not user-friendly.

How Much Will It Cost and What does it include?

Know what your budget is for a website and what features you need to accomplish your goals. Be sure to get a written proposal of the functions included and the total price. Understand that any changes will come at an increased cost.

Does the price include editing photos, uploading starter content and training? What about a logo? These are usually extra features that may cost more.

If the web designer is good to communicate with, offers the services you need and is within your budget, you are most of the way to your new website!